U.N. Postpones Negotiations on Treaty to Ban Human Cloning

The U.N. General Assembly decided Tuesday to put off for a year negotiations on a treaty banning human cloning.

All 191 members support a prohibition on cloning human beings. But nations are divided about whether to allow cloning human embryos for stem cell or other research, known as “therapeutic” cloning. The Bush administration wants the treaty to ban cloning embryos for stem cell research.

Last month the assembly’s legal committee, by a margin of one vote, decided that a treaty should not be negotiated for two years, virtually derailing the measure. Sixty-six scientific academies worldwide support therapeutic cloning.